Category Archives: Races

Work continues on Durth at a flail snail’s pace. Day job and mundane life keep getting in the way. Things aren’t at a stand still, just going slower than I would like.
As I mentioned earlier, the idea is that Durth will work with whatever retro-clone you want to use. So I won’t be recreating the normal classes for it. Heck, for non-spell casting classes there is nothing change. For the spell casters, things are a little different. There’s no change to the individual classes but there are things and places in the world that will affect them.
The same goes for races pretty much. There aren’t going to be any major changes other than what the world has done to them. Humans, generally the most generic of races, has no change other than the world is a screwed up place. Dwarves, elves, and halflings aren’t so lucky. Each has some minor mechanical changes and/or interesting quirks. But more on that as I start turning insane notes into something other people can actually understand.
So what’s going to be new? There’s going to be two new classes. The Wastelander and the Super Science Sorcerer. I had every intention of posting the Wastelander this week but I really wasn’t happy with it yet. Additionally, there’s The Mutant. I mean you can’t have a gonzo post-apocalyptic world without mutants.
But let me give you an overview of them.The Wastelander: This one is pretty much your barbarian from the wastes. Tough. Resistant to all sorts of really bad things. Good with weapons but not so much with armor. And can scrounge up food and water in the worst of terrains.The Super Science Sorcerer: This class is very similar to the Magic-User except no spells. They can use all the magic items and scrolls that a Magic-User can. They do have some rudimentary arcane power which allows them to blast their opponents, create magical protection around themselves, and heal. Their key niche is going to be understanding and using super science gadgets.And finally The Mutant: There’s an age old debate in OSR circles about racial classes. So there will be two options and GM’s can use whatever one they wish. As a race, Mutants have a randomly rolled appearance and a couple of randomly determined weird abilities. As a class, you start off just like the Mutant as Race but each level, players roll to see what new and strange ability the character gains.
Yes, I know still speaking in generalities here but when I start throwing things out there, I want to at least be happy with the beta versions. So more detail stuff is coming up. Stay tuned till next week.

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A long time ago, I did a Sexy Alien Elves post. I’ve been meaning to go back and spruce up that idea but just haven’t gotten around to it. But then there’s this fine post popped up on Elfmaids & Octopi (which is a really cool blog) and that got the creative juices going again on this idea. So here you go.
Elves are powerful magical beings from another plane. In the ultimate act of arcane hubris, they destroyed not only their home world but the entire plane. A few managed to escape to this plane of existence. The elves feel no regret nor guilt about the destruction of their home. They are still bold and arrogant, and view the native races as simple and inferior. They are not above treating the other races like disposable playthings.
And here’s the crunchy bits, mainly designed around Swords & Wizardry: The Alien Sorcerous Elf
Of course, if you’re paying attention to the tags on this post. You’ll see Durth. Yeah, that’s one of my new projects. Here’s the elevator pitch: Thundarr The Barbarian, He-Man, and Carcosa with some gonzo OSR flair thrown into the blender of my imagination. We’ll see how this goes.

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Work continues on Stark Space. That’s my own little gritty dystopian supplement for White Star which is an awesome game in its own right. Stark Space takes it the gritty rough and tumble reaches of Blade Runner, Aliens, and Outland.
I wanted to make some core classes to better reflect the Stark Space universe. In general, these are meant to replace the existing classes but this the OSR GM’s should do what they want to make their games awesome. As I mentioned in my previous post, there three classes.The Muscle: This one should be pretty obvious. This is the fighter, mercenary, soldier, thug, martial artist, and hot shot pilot. One thing I wanted to do is make them shine a little more in combat so they’ve got three class abilities. Combat Expert is a bonus applied to combat with a certain type of weapon like small arms, space weapons, melee weapons, or unarmed combat. Combat Sense provides the character with a bonus to Armor Class. And then there’s Combat Style. While Combat Expert reflects the character’s training. Combat Style reflects the character’s approach to combat by being a Brute(Damage bonus), precise (bonus To-hit), or mobile (bonus to AC).The Brains: These are your tech’s, engineers, medics, hackers, and walking encyclopedias. They can jury rig equipment. Get a bonus to whatever skill they specialize in. Re-roll failed class skill rolls. That’s pretty much the standard stuff. Brains are also the planners. So I threw in couple more things. They gain a bonus to initiative and they can provide bonuses in combat to other characters by relaying crucial tactical information.The Face: We got the Muscle and the Brains, now somebody needs to do the talking. Brains are con artists, detectives, and other social types. Like Brains, they gain a bonus to their specialized skill. They know where to find the right people and how to act around people. They can distract and demoralize opponents. They have a little bit of luck to help with those Saving Throws.
Now on to Races. Once again, I’ll refer back to my original post. I’m not using race in the real world sense but in the game mechanics sense. Since Stark Space is that Gritty dytopian future, I opted for no aliens as player characters. But once again, this is something that GM’s can change if they wish. There’s four options for “race”.Human: That one is pretty obvious. I wanted to add a little punch for humans. So bonus to skills and saves. They’re humans so I don’t need to explain that much about them.Max-Gene: Take a normal human and do some genetic manipulation and attempt to turn them into a super soldier or hard labor drone. These characters have good physical stats but terrible mental stats. They prone to all sorts of add psychological behaviors. The basic mechanic around them is reduce mental ability scores and improve physical scores at character generation.Simulants: You’ve seen Blade Runner, right? There you go. As they level, there’s a chance that they’ll start to degrade and lose points from their ability scores. It can be repaired but that’s very expensive and illegal.Psi: There had to some sort of mental abilities. The powers of these characters have much less effect than the Gifts or Meditations from the core White Star rules. While these powers could be considered minor, they’re the only type of power in the implied setting. It works off the skill system but more on that later.
There you go some more rants on the classes and races. I’ll have more rants in the future about skills and inspiration. So stay tuned.

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Another alien race for White Star or other old school space opera game. This one is a lot more tongue in cheek than most of the stuff I’ve done but this one was a lot of fun. So ahead and check it out. There’s more great stuff to come.

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I thought of this other day. Humans are the most boring race in fantasy RPG’s. Yes, there’s that human diversity, spirit and all that but compared to everyone else they’re kind of blah. So why not twist things up a bit? Let’s make them and their place in the world just a little more interesting.

Bottom of the Food Chain: Dwarves are resistant to poison. Many races can see in the dark. Simple things like this don’t exactly make humans the best. So play it up. They’re at the bottom of the food chain. They’re the lowest on the totem pole. You get the drift. They might not even have their own cities and kingdoms. They just hang out with the other races.

Invasive Species: Who says humans have to be natives to the setting? Maybe they’re from another world or plane. They showed up, escaped, got exiled or whatever. Anyway, they’re the newest race and they’re breeding like cockroaches or kudzu.

Not A Pure Strain: Maybe humans are the result of an odd pairing. Maybe they’re half-dwarf/half-elf. Neither of the ancient ancestors want to talk about and they probably blame each other for the mistake.

Wizard Did It: Yes, it’s the go-to, pat answer but it can work. Humans are artificial race created by some ancient and probably alien wizard. Maybe laughs, labor, or experimentation.

I’m sure there are plenty more ideas out there. Just run with it, folks. Everything in your setting should be interesting.

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OK, yes. I admit it. I happen to like Tieflings. So go ahead mock me. In the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook, there arent any Tiefling subraces. So I decided to do one on my own. While the core Tiefling has pretty much a generic fiendish hetitage, Seducers have a strong incubus/succubus presence in their lineage. This is very much a social character. The Seducer is the same as the core Tiefling with following substitutions and additions:
Fiendish Armor (Replaces Hellish Resistance): While wearing no armor or shield, the Seducer’s Armor Class is 10+Dexterity Modifier+Charisma Modifier.Infernal Legacy (Substitute the following spells): Seducers know the friends cantrip. At 3rd level, the character can cast charm person once per day as a 2nd level spell. At 5th level. the character can cast enthrall once per day.Master Manipulator: Seducers are proficient in Deception and Persuasion.
There you go. Quick and simple.

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Yes, I like dragons but the Dragonborn always just kind of felt “meh” to me. Sort of dragons but not quite. And some overall feeling that they were just tacked on to D&D as a fanboy service. They just didn’t seem interesting. So instead of telling you what to do. I got some inspiration from Obscene Serpent Religion. Use it for a little inspiration to get those creative juices flowing or just roll and see what happens.Dragonborn
Enjoy!

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I ain’t no scholar. I ain’t no academic. I’m not that smart or good looking. I’m just a guy who wants to roll dice and have some fun. This is my little blog featuring lots of old school RPG stuff and other RPG rants. Remember the cardinal rules. The rules are guidelines. Keep it simple. Roll dice, Kill monsters. Take their stuff. And have fun!

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Mise En Place is cooking term. Basically, doing all your preparation beforehand. And that's what I rant about this episode. Getting ready to run Advanced Labyrinth Lord and all the things I'm trying to get ready.

I rant about my "system neutral" DM Notebook and how it's important and it's important to clean the thing out every once in a while. Also, continue with the reading from the Little Brown Books. This time up: 1st Level Magic-User spells.